


Of Cheesecakes and New Beginnings

by wynnebat



Series: Just Write! Fluff Bingo 2019 [3]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Bisexual Character, Break Up, Cooking Lessons, EWE, F/F, Fluff and Angst, Getting Together, Minor Hermione Granger/Ron Weasley, Moving On, POV Hermione Granger, Post-Hogwarts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-11
Updated: 2019-08-11
Packaged: 2020-08-18 20:50:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,182
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20197984
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wynnebat/pseuds/wynnebat
Summary: Hermione signs up for cooking lessons to impress her boyfriend. By the time she learns to cook, she has a girlfriend instead.





	Of Cheesecakes and New Beginnings

**Author's Note:**

> Fluff Bingo square: baking.

It’s absolute madness, that’s what it is. Absolute, utter madness. Hermione is a decorated war hero, an up and coming witch in the Department of Mysteries, and described by many as the most brilliant witch of her generation. It’s been a long time since she cried in a bathroom stall or been made fun of because of her intelligence. She’s a smart, capable woman.

She also can’t cook well. And she can’t bake at all.

Oh, Hermione knows enough that she doesn’t survive on takeout alone, but she cooks the same five recipes each week. Each recipe can be prepared in less than an hour, ideally less than half an hour. Her recipes are less cookbook-style and more “anything in her cupboard that can be thrown together. Lunch is either spent at the ministry cafeteria or takeout. Breakfast is eggs or leftovers. More often than not, she’s too exhausted after work to bother putting together a salad, and eats each part of the salad on its own. It’s still healthy.

Ron doesn’t say a thing to her about it—they see each other mainly on the weekends, when they can spare a moment between her job and his—but she knows his mother is an excellent cook. And whenever they visit and Molly assures her that she doesn’t need to help in the kitchen, Hermione has the feeling it’s because of the fiasco at Christmas, which doesn’t bear thinking about. Needless to say, she’s just not up to par in the kitchen.

It makes her uncomfortable, annoyed.

Hermione never likes being anything less than brilliant at anything.

Which is why, when she sees a notice on the ministry cafeteria’s bulletin board, she stops to read it fully. It offers cooking and baking lessons at the Leaky Cauldron on Saturday mornings. The instructors are Hannah Abbott and Cho Chang, both of whom had been members of Dumbledore’s Army, although Hermione hadn’t known them well.

It might be nice, she decides, worrying her lip. She could go to a few lessons and surprise Ron with her new skills. They’ve been growing apart lately. It’s her own fault. Her job is more demanding than his; it’s her who keeps rescheduling their dates or getting too caught up with work to reply to him. It’s been months since she’s felt close to him.

She thinks about it all week.

On Saturday morning, Hermione wakes up before the alarm she’d set and sighs deeply. She’s doing this.

She’s one of the first people there that morning. Hannah laughs at her, familiar with her habits, and asks her to help set up. When Cho arrives, Hermione remembers how Harry used to act around her and firmly tells herself not to take his example, no matter the fact that Cho has only grown prettier since they were at Hogwarts together. Hermione has a boyfriend, but even Ron had blushingly confessed a crush on Cho back at school. All three of them were hopeless.

“What do you want to learn?” Cho asks, washing her hands in the sink. “We’re flexible and it’s a small class, only five witches and my brother. Mum’s making him learn after she found he survives on ten boiled eggs a day.”

Hermione laughs, but admits, “I’m not much better. I’d like to learn a few good recipes for after-work dinners.” Before she can think better of it, she adds, “And I’d like to bake a cheesecake.”

“Ambitious,” Cho says with a grin. “I like it.”

Cho corrects her mistakes three times that first lesson. She manages to do it in a way that doesn’t have Hermione’s hackles up. The rest of the group is a nice bunch, too. Her initial plan had been to go to a few lessons and quit when she had a few meals down. Maybe brag about it to Ron, impress him with her new skills.

Instead, two weeks into the course, Ron asks if they can talk.

Their breakup goes smoothly. They agree to share custody of Harry.

Hermione knows it will be the work of months if not weeks to be friends again. They’d been friends for longer than they had dated; they can get back to the way they were. She still spends the whole workweek moping on the inside. She intends to mope on the outside on the weekend, where she won’t have coworkers looking at her like she’s lost her mind.

She almost skips cooking class, but Cho owls her about whether she prefers fruit or chocolate-based desserts. Hermione forces herself out of bed.

Later, she regrets it when she bursts into tears in the middle of class. She hasn’t done that since her NEWTs had driven her to tears of stress. Hermione makes it to the walk-in food cupboard and sniffles as she reads the labels on the boxes. Her eyes are blurry. Her face is doubtlessly red.

Cho looks perfect when she opens the door, a sympathetic expression on her face and a box of tissues in her hand. “Bad day?”

“Bad week.” Hermione blows her nose. “Ron broke up with me.”

“Ah,” Cho says. “I always thought you’d break up with him first.”

Despite herself, Hermione laughs into a tissue. “Thanks, I think.” She tells Cho the whole stupid story, sitting side by side on one of the crates. It takes forever; at first, Hermione is an overemotional mess, and then later, she’s just melancholy. By the end, it must have taken past the end of class, but Cho never says a word of complaint.

“Come on,” Cho says instead. “You walked out in the middle of cheesecake-making. I’ll give you remedial lessons.”

“I’ve never been in remedial lessons in my life,” Hermione replies, affronted at the very concept. She stands, following after Cho and feeling lighter after releasing her emotions. She hadn’t been able to talk with anyone about the breakup; Harry was Ron’s best friend and Ginny was his sister. It hadn’t felt right.

Cho looks amused. “First time for everything.”

Under Cho’s supervision, Hermione makes a perfect cheesecake. They eat pieces of it with tea even as the bustle in the Leaky Cauldron increases with the Saturday lunch rush. Hermione hasn’t felt like this in too long. Heard thudding in her chest, Hermione has the sudden, terrible realization that she isn’t too busy for dating. It hadn’t been her job, or her busy schedule, or anything else. She and Ron had drifted apart until she hadn’t wanted to bring them back together. Ron was just the braver of the two of them, more willing to initiate what they should have done months ago.

She has another realization, too, but it’s too early.

Not yet, she thinks.

Not until she sure, until it’s been long enough that the breakup doesn’t pain her, until she can meet with Ron in a group and greet him like any other friend, albeit one she knows so well.

Not until it’s been months of lingering looks, and Hermione stays after class and takes a chance.

She’s never been so thrilled to hear someone say yes.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! I'm also on [tumblr](https://wynnefic.tumblr.com/).


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